


The Death of Billy Kaplan

by TheWarriors



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers
Genre: Basically a lot of pain, Breakup, F/M, Grieving Teddy, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Resurrection, Reunion, Someday, THIS WILL HAVE A HAPPY END, Team Feels, sad sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-03-07 16:11:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3176956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWarriors/pseuds/TheWarriors
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Demiurge falls<br/>The shattered remnants of his team have to learn what a world without Billy Kaplan feels like.<br/>Some of them cope better than others.</p><p>A threat in New York brings them back together, and lures a mysterious new hero out of hiding.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Death

**Author's Note:**

> Heed the tags, guys. This is an angst party.

Teddy couldn't remember how it started. They'd been bickering for days over the smallest things, the air in the apartment has become suffocating. They both found excuses to be away, to leave for longer and longer stretches of time. To avoid each other. He'd never expected it to go like this, they were supposed to live happily ever after. Teddy felt like he deserved a happily ever after, considering what he'd lived through. Maybe that was the problem.

Maybe that was why he'd had to stand there and watch Billy dig the toe of his tennis shoe into the carpet, while he'd explained that _this wasn't working anymore._

“…You really feel that way? After everything we’ve done?” Teddy had asked, while a cold sweat crawled down his neck. 

“Don’t throw that in my face- we’ve been through hell, I know that- but you can’t expect me to live like this.” Billy's voice was bitter, low pitched like he was ashamed of saying the words aloud.

“Like what? What am I doing that’s so terrible, Billy?” Teddy practically pleaded, staring at him, his chest tight with fear. Not now, he couldn't be alone. Not now Billy, please...

“You look at me like I’m the only thing you’ve got left, you have no idea what that feels like…” Barely a whisper now, his eyes focused on the carpet. 

The breaking point. Teddy wondered afterwards if that was what drove Billy away. His desperation. “You _are_ the only thing I have left!”

“No I’m not! And I can’t live with you putting all the pressure on me.”

“So what are you saying? What do you want from me?”

“I want—shit, I don’t _know_ what I want. I just need… space. I need to think.” Billy raked his fingers through his hair. He always did the when he was tense.

“…Okay. Okay. I’ll give you space.”

“…Teddy…”

“No. If that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get. Because I always give you what you want, right?”

Silence. Teddy couldn't stand it.“ _Right?_ ”

Billy looked up at his, his brown eyes wide and sad. Teddy could see the end of everything in that look. It scared him worse than ever.

“….Sorry, I just-“ 

“No, it’s fine. I’m gonna go stay with Tommy for a while… I’ll call you.”

“Billy-“ _Please don't go._

“Bye, Teddy.”

The therapist uncrossed, then re-crossed her legs the other way, her pen scratching on the legal pad as she took notes. “So you had a fight…” She prompted, looking up at Teddy again.

“Yeah. Couple days ago. Not just a fight, though, it felt like the end of something. Like we were both at this breaking point…” He rubbed his face with the palms of his hands, then dropped them back into his lap. “He and I have separated before. That time it was my choice… because I was having doubts about us.”

“What kind of doubts?”

“I was worried… what we had wasn’t genuine.” He felt a pit forming in his gut as he relived the night he’d walked away from Billy, left him crying out in the rain and hadn’t looked back. 

“And you feel this fight was somehow connected?”

“No. I’m not sure. It wasn’t about the same thing- Billy… I don’t know, felt pressured, he said? Said I looked at him like he’s all I’ve got left and that was too much to handle.” Teddy’ throat tightened, he had to take a deep breath before continuing. "I don't want to lose him."

The therapist sent her pen down and leaned forward, uncrossing her legs again. “This kind of relationship struggle is common in young couples, Teddy, and it's going to be harder, because you're both dealing with loss. You’re handling very complex emotions, and you don’t yet have the maturity or experience to interpret them. It’s going to be difficult for Billy to give you the support you need, because he doesn’t understand how to give that to you.”

“But I was there for him when he was depressed. For months I was there…”

“You can’t look at it that way. This isn’t a debt that needs to be repaid, it’s a chance to learn, to grow. It’s a path you need to go down together. And the only way you’re going to get there is by communicating.”

Teddy looked at her, then down at the carpet. “What if he doesn’t want to listen to me?”

“There’s always a way, Teddy. As long as you remember that your feelings are valid, your needs are important, and you are a whole person, with or without a boyfriend. If you walk into that conversation ready to listen, and make sure you are listened to in return, your relationship has a higher chance to survive than if you give up.”

He chewed his lip, then nodded. “…Okay. I’ll try it.”

“I’m glad to hear it. And perfect timing- that’s the end of our two hours. I hope to see you again.”

Teddy muttered his goodbye as he grabbed his coat. 

Billy woke with a groan at the ungodly shriek of the Avengers Communicator, sitting bolt upright and blinking sleep from his eyes. “Awww… crap.” He rasped.

Muffled swearing emerged from the pile of blankets next to him. “Turn…. your fuckin’ alarm _off_.”

He scrambled out of bed, his legs getting tangled in the sheets, sending him toppling to the floor. “ _Ow_. Not an alarm—well, sort of not an alarm—“ Billy snatched his pants off the ground in front of him, digging around in the pockets until he found the flashing card. 

“I don’t care, kill it!” Tommy shouted, poking his head out from under the pillow to glare.

“I’m trying!” Billy snapped back, tapping the ‘acknowledged’ icon furiously until the sound cut out. He read the message, then paled. “…Okay. It was an alarm. Get up, we’ve gotta go-“

“No fucking way.” His twin had burrowed right back under the pillows.

“Tommy, this is serious-“

“What’s serious is how much I’m not getting out of this bed until I die.”

Billy’s expression soured and he clambered to his feet, picking up his clothes from around the room and getting dressed as quickly as he could manage. “…You’re still part of the team, you know.”

“Yeah, I really got that vibe when I found out you guys hadn’t even looked for me while I was missing. Real touchy-feely.”

“I _told_ you why-“

“Didn’t you have some emergency thing to get to? Better get on that.” Tommy interrupted him, pushing himself farther under the covers. 

Billy took a slow breath in. “You know, you really piss me off sometimes.” 

“Love you too, _bro_.” 

Billy's eyes narrowed, and he wordlessly changed his clothes into his uniform, the blue light fleeting but intense. "Screw you, Tommy." He bit out, then turned to leave. 

Tommy muttered something bitter into the mattress, too quiet for Billy to hear. 

All he heard in reply was his bedroom door slamming.

It was, as Kate loudly explained over the mic, a real shitstorm.

The sky was crowded with flashes of silver, robots- too fast to hit, almost too fast to see. New York was burning. They were dropping bombs.

Billy's lungs burned too as he flew a thick cloud of colored smoke, and he choked. He felt a tug on his cape as an arrow tore through it, and Kate swore an apology. He whirled around just in time to see one of the bots tumble towards the concrete, the arrow embedded in its metal skull. 

"Nice shot." He gasped, then gagged on the words.

His eyes were stinging, his vision blurred as he coughed violently. What the hell had he breathed in? Some kind of chemical-

"Billy! You're losing altitude, what's wrong?!" He could see Kate, a smear of purple on one of the rooftops. She sounded worried, and he wanted to tell her it was alright... but he couldn't force the words out. He thought he tasted blood, everything started spinning. "Oh god, he's crashing, he's going down-" No, no all he had to do was think. Think about staying up and-

" _Where's Hulkling?_ " Noh-Varr? When had he gotten here? No! He had to _think_ , if only they would be quiet--

"Teddy! Teddy, do you copy, Wiccan's in freefall, he needs a pickup-"

Teddy wasn't coming. Billy already knew. He'd told him to stay away, that he needed space. _And now I'm going to die for it._

" _Teddy where the hell are you, Billy's falling-!_ Net arrow, oh jesus, where's the net arrow-" Kate was shouting.

All the colors of the city melted together, Billy knew this was his last chance. With spit and blood streaking from his lips into the air, he retched out the words, "Tell him I-"

Kate heard the wet crunch through her comms, and screamed.


	2. Adrift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter earns the rating  
> huge apologies to everyone waiting forever on the update, life got in the way of writing.  
> hope you enjoy the feelings

_The funeral was on a Wednesday._

_Teddy stood with Billy’s family. He held Rebecca Kaplan’s hand, while he husband held her around the shoulders. The boys, still too young to really understand what this all meant, alternated between looking at their crying mother in confusion, and bickering over nothing to relieve the tension. They all wore torn black ribbons, pinned to their clothes._

_On the other side of the casket were scattered the broken remnants of the Young Avengers, none of them talking to each other, or standing too close. They all showed up, except America and Loki. Nobody wondered why._

_Wanda Maximoff could be seen a distance away, isolated from the funeral party, but the sound of her weeping carried over to them. Late in the ceremony she was joined by her father, who held her hand in silence._

_The air was dead, the sky a sickly yellow-grey, and the smell of ozone tainted everything. But rain didn’t break._

_Even as a Rabbi spoke over the dead boy’s grave, everyone seemed to be holding their breath, all waiting for the punchline of this sick joke. None came, and Billy was lowered into the earth as everyone wandered away._

_Erik guided Wanda away last, her shoulders still shaking with sobs, and quiet fell over the resting place of William Kaplan._

  


As terrible as it sounded, they all began to fill the gap he’d left. They learned how to live without him, how to move on from awkward silences where Billy would have made a joke or a reference. They all stopped waiting for his dry, sarcastic commentary. Wanda and Rebecca Kaplan start meeting for lunch, every second Tuesday of the month, and they swap stories tearfully over lunch or coffee. The friendship saves the both of them.

The Young Avengers disband. It felt hollow, continuing on without one of the founding members- and these days nobody could get Teddy, Tommy, or Kate to answer their phones.

The world kept turning, the Avengers and the X-Men kept saving the day, and the community shrine for the fallen young hero slowly dwindles down, cleaned up by street sweepers and garbage-men and pilfered by the city rats.

  


The room was too dark, too warm, it made his skin crawl. Teddy’s voice seemed small and distant when he spoke, and Tommy could picture the expression he was making in the darkness- the one he made when he felt like he was saying too much, burdening the other person with his troubles. Teddy was too fucking good. This was too intimate.

“I don’t want to lie to you.”

There were a thousand words on Tommy’s tongue, straining to be said, but he ground his teeth and kept quiet, waiting for Teddy to finish his thought. That’s what Billy would have done.

“I don’t want you to think… that I’m trying to replace him. I can’t-“, there was a wet, sniffling sound, and Tommy nearly flinched. He hadn’t signed up for this. “I can’t replace him, you know?”

Tommy opened his mouth, and the words flooded out. “Teddy, I don’t personally give a shit, okay? I’m not your therapist. We’re doing this because I get something, and you get something. Not to like… settle some big emotional problem.” His voice turned hard and mocking, almost without him realizing. “Billy might have been good at that or whatever, but that’s not why I’m here.”

“Don’t say his name.” Teddy said quietly, but he sounded a little closer now.

“I’ll say whatever the fuck I want.” Before Tommy knew what was happening, he was being pinned by a huge weight, holding down his arms and legs. Was this why Teddy had insisted on the lights off? So Tommy wouldn’t see this coming?

“Do not.” Teddy’s voice was low and dangerous now, and Tommy shuddered guiltily as heat pulsed in his groin. “Do not say his name to me. Ever.” He could hear Teddy’s breathing, could feel the warmth radiating off of him- he was so close...

“Fuck, dude- alright, okay… I won’t fucking say it.” he squirmed, knowing full well that if he wanted Teddy off, he could make him get off. It just felt good to fight it a little.

The weight lifted off his wrists, and Tommy could hear clothes rustling above him. He blinked, straining his eyes to try and see what was happening, but it was useless in the inky blackness.

Something hit the floor with a soft ‘whump’, he imagined it was Teddy’s shirt. He closed his eyes, trying to picture it. It had been blue, just a t-shirt, but tight enough that Tommy could imagine the muscles underneath. His eyes slid open again as he reached up, slowly, wanting to touch Teddy’s chest, to feel those muscles bare.

There was a sharp intake of breath as his hands connected, his fingers spreading out over the tight, firm skin. Tommy licked his lips, then swallowed, trying to wet his dry throat as he started to move his hands up.

“Wrong way.” Teddy rumbled, his large fingers closing around Tommy’s wrists, forcing his hands down his chest, then his abdomen.

“You sure know how to romance a guy.” Even to his own ears, Tommy’s words sounded weak.

“No more talking.” was all Teddy said in reply. Tommy took a shaky breath, then nodded. He knew Teddy couldn’t see it in the dark. It didn’t matter. He felt the heels of his hands touch denim- the waistband of Teddy’s jeans.

It was alright, Tommy reassured himself. This was fucked up, for sure, but they both needed it, needed something other than the weak comfort everyone kept trying to feed them.

And he liked Teddy just fine. Fine enough to pull his jeans down and suck his dick.

_I dedicate this blowjob to my dead brother, rest in peace amen._

  


Kate throws herself into training. It’s the only thing she can do, she’s been trying to work herself back into the hero gig. But every time she aims the bow, she sees her best friend plummeting to his death, hitting the pavement. Just a smear of red and at first, she’d thought it was the cape. But it was him.

She pales just thinking about it, her fists connecting hard with the punching bag in Clint’s apartment.

_Whap whap whap_

It stings through the gloves, but she keeps going. Undercut, uppercut, rinse, repeat. Sweat crawls down her neck, her hair falling out of it’s bun and hanging wet and stringy over her shoulders. 

_Whap whap whap_

She could have saved him. She’s seen people die before. She’s killed people before. But Billy was personal, it was a failure, he was her friend. 

She stops punching when she feels skin split over her knuckle, swearing under her breath as she unwraps her hands gingerly. Kate turns the tv on before walking over to rinse the blood off in the sink.

They still talk about him on the news, but it’s less frequent. She watches anyways, watches them play the cell phone footage some jackass submitted after the battle, she watched the fluttering streak of red tumbling in air, and they always cut it right before the end. Every time she holds her breath, waiting for it to happen, and it never comes. A million freefalls, and never the end. It doesn't matter- the full video is online anyway.

She’s just about to take a shower, to scrub off the sweat and the guilt coating her skin, when the broadcast switches abruptly.

_Former Young Avengers team members spotted in Lower Manhattan- Imminent Reunion?_

Like bigfoot, theres a blurry photo of Teddy and Tommy walking side by side, mid-stride. The angle of the picture makes it look like they're holding hands, but she knows better.

Kate takes a slow breath and picks her phone up off the counter. It’s time to pussy up and call them.


End file.
